Twin study links artistic, but not scientific, creativity to poorer mental health
The relationship between creativity and mental health has attracted the interest of many psychologists over the past decades. Some past studies have found that creativity is sometimes linked to mental health difficulties, while others collected opposing or inconsistent results.
A recent study published in Molecular Psychiatry reveals that artistic creativity, but not scientific creativity, is linked to poorer mental health. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Karolinska Institutet and other institutions analyzed data from 14,658 Swedish twins who participated in two surveys conducted in 2012-2013 and 2022-2023.
The surveys assessed the twins' artistic achievements, occupations, mental health symptoms and openness to experience. The study found that artistic creativity was associated with higher rates of mental health issues, such as bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder, and this association is partly influenced by genetic factors.
However, scientific creativity was not significantly linked to most mental health conditions. The researchers emphasize that the relationship between creativity and mental health is complex and depends on the type of creativity being measured, suggesting that future studies should distinguish between artistic and scientific creativity to avoid conflating the two.
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